Column: Remembering September’s celebrations and friendships that endure

Well, September’s behind us, and who did I miss sending greetings to for birthdays and anniversaries? September is my calendar’s busiest month as far as recognizing those events goes.

I’ve had to adjust the calendar to reflect some losses, and that saddens me. But it also gives me pause to stop and remember my friends Jan and Shirley, both September babies, as well as my parents’ and grandparents’ wedding anniversaries.

When we were teens, Jan, Shirley and I would walk the deserted streets of Chippewa during the school year after the “cottagers” went home and we had the place to ourselves again. The only traffic we had to contend with was people coming home from work at the end of the day and, if we were lucky, a car or two of boys. Many times our walk took us to a little restaurant called The Pantry, where we’d spend our babysitting money on Cokes and the best onion rings imaginable.

Eventually, Shirley married and moved to Alaska, returning to the lower 48 once a year to visit friends and family or to attend a class reunion. Jan ended up on the East Coast, taking her mother with her when her dad died. We stayed in touch by phone a couple of times a year. Both Jan and Shirley went into the medical field — Jan as a nurse and Shirley as an X-ray technician. I stayed behind, a touchstone of sorts. They’re both gone now, and I miss them, but the memories linger on. I still have three friends with September birthdays to remember, along with both of my brothers.

Then there are the anniversaries. My grandparents were married on Sept. 1 many, many years ago. My parents on Sept. 7, our daughter on Sept. 17, and my brother, I think, close after. One couple we are close with shares my parents’ anniversary, so they’re easy to remember. That list has shortened, obviously, through the years.

The winter gives us a pretty good lull in the greeting card department, other than Christmas, with our own anniversary that usually passes unnoticed. We hardly remember it ourselves — we’ve had so many of them. It’s early in January and often gets lost in the holiday shuffle. Our daughter is often caught off guard and gives herself a “doink” on the forehead when she asks me and I tell her it was last week. It’s OK. I did the same with my in-laws, always without fail, missing their anniversary that fell somewhere real close to Thanksgiving. I tried to palm that one off on Ol’ Bill, who had no idea when his parents married. How does the greeting card–sending department fall on the wife/mother/daughter most often as opposed to the husband/father/son?

I have to step back a moment as I recall the day my parents found themselves in the local Hallmark store browsing cards with their anniversary looming. Dad found one he thought appropriate to the 50-some years they’d been married and showed it to Mother. She was properly emotional and said something like, “Oh, that’s sweet.” They put the card back on the rack and went to dinner. Mission accomplished. Money saved.

I have missed one July birthday so often now I just automatically send a belated card. It’s become comical. And I traditionally miss my best friend’s March wedding anniversary — or is it April? Is there a “belated” card for anniversaries? There should be.

In today’s electronic world, all we have to do is fire off an email with a heart emoji. Click. Done. Save a tree. Save a stamp. Save a trip to the dollar store.

Wishing you a very happy day, whatever you may be celebrating.